In Season: A land of honey... and cakes

Bakeries are offering selections of cakes and pastries that will keep everyone sweet and happy during the holidays.

Rosh Hashana cake.
(photo credit:Courtesy)

Ben-Ami – honey and wine

Chef baker Ben-Ami Bertini- Shavit prepares new versions of his much-loved pastries every year but keeps the old favorites as well. This holiday, he has added a few pastries that combine honey with wine, adding new and exciting flavors to the traditional cakes.

Our favorite brioche with crème patissiere, Cabernet and honey (NIS 15 for an individual cake). Other excellent choices in the collection are yeast cake with apples and dates in Merlot filling and honey glaze (NIS 39); cheese mousse cake with apple and wine gel (NIS 105); and the all-time favorite Galina honey and cream (NIS 67), as well as great cookies.

Kosher. To find a bakery near you, call (09) 866-3211 or go to www.benami.co.il. Free delivery for orders over NIS 169.

Biscotti – fruit and honey

At Biscotti the Rosh Hashana selection combines the traditional honey with seasonal fruit. All the cakes are made by hand, and chef Rosslana Yona gives her creations the taste and feel of home baking. This year, the selection includes honey cakes with fruit, as well as many mousses and honey roulades. We loved the honey roulade with honey-vanilla cream and cherries. (NIS 53 to NIS 85) and the apple and honey Krantz cake (NIS 42).

Available at the Biscotti bakery in Bnei Brak or by telephone order to all parts of the country.

Kosher. 67 Hayarkon, Bnei Brak (03) 570-4015/8.

Dallal – happy New Year

The holiday collection of the lovely Dallal Bakery next door to the restaurant in Neveh Tzedek includes classical honey cakes and buns, apple tarts, special holiday halla and Rosh Hashana bread with apples and pomegranate seeds.

Dallal’s honey cake with root beer is a favorite and stays moist for days (NIS 42).

Another favorite is the Austrian style yeast apple cake with honey (NIS 49).

Not kosher. 7 Kol Yisrael Haverim, Neveh Tzedek, Tel Aviv

Tatti Bread – honey beehive

This year, Tatti’s selection is especially rich, with many breads, cakes, cookies and other pastries to keep us happy all through the holidays. The Rosh Hashana bread is rich with pecans, silan and plums soaked in rum (NIS 23). There is also a marzipan halla with honey (NIS 32) and a brioche halla with honey. All excellent.

The selection of honey and apple cakes is very rich, and we especially loved the ricottahoney cake (NIS 62) and the bee-sting cake (NIS 23 for an individual size and NIS 64 for a cake). There is also a selection of wonderful cookies in boxes of 250 gr.

At Bistro Lehem Yayin, they believe that silan, the date honey, is the right ingredient for the holiday. Silan, they maintain, blends well with all other ingredients, giving cakes and cookies refined sweetness that enhances all other tastes.

Topping their holiday collection are the kugelhopf silan and almonds festive cake (NIS 44) and the yeast silan and date cake (NIS 44).

Other options include chocolate pie with figs (NIS 69), the wonderful rice pops and silan, gluten-free cookies, with halva, white chocolate and peanut butter, pictured on the cover, (NIS 33 for 310 gr.), and they also add silan to their tasty country breads and offer a few versions of the classic honey cake.

Not kosher. 4 Derech Hahoresh, Kiryat Savyonim, Yehud (03) 632-1793

Metuka – sweeter than honey

The Metuka chain of cafes and bakeries offers a selection of individual cakes and desserts with all the traditional holiday items – honey, apples, pomegranates and dates. They also offer a birthday-like cake for the New Year – the primadonna cake, a honey cake on a base of almond biscotti and chocolate ganache with a white sugar icing and red lettering (NIS 189). Other options include tehina and honey cake (NIS 38), flower honey cake (NIS 29 only during this month), coconut honey cake and more.

Metuka also offers great gift packages of pastries and honey for last minute shoppers.